Professor Michael Luck
Update Monday 25 September: We are committed to working in partnership with our recognised trade unions and we are pleased that the UCU strike action in week commencing 25 September has now been called off.
Professor Michael Luck, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Provost, and Chair of the Joint Negotiating Committee wrote to all staff on Friday 15 September. You can see the full text of his email below.
You may be aware that the University and College Union (UCU) has announced strike action from Monday 25 – Friday 29 September 2023. Sussex is one of 140 universities where UCU members will be taking strike action over pay and working conditions as part of a sustained period of national industrial action.
We recognise that no-one decides to take industrial action lightly and we respect people’s right to strike to improve pay and working conditions. We are also aware that in these financially challenging times, pay is at the forefront of everyone’s minds.
However, at Sussex, like other universities, we are bound by a national collective bargaining agreement. I am also conscious that at Sussex we sought to influence the national negotiations, as illustrated by our joint statement with our local UCU.
Colleagues taking strike action will need to declare their days taken via the declaration form which will be available from the industrial action webpages shortly.
As you will appreciate, the University Executive is working closely with the Student Experience division and colleagues in Schools to minimise disruption to the start of the new academic year for our students.
We remain committed to working collaboratively with you all to improve our employment practices and working conditions for all staff. We are keen to continue to work with our three recognised campus trade unions, Unite, UNISON and UCU to achieve this, as we did over 16 weeks to reach a joint agreement on a number of issues relating to pay and working conditions. We will be updating you shortly on our progress with the 16 week agreement.